Call Kurtis: I Paid Full Price For A Demo Model That Doesn’t Work!

A Sacramento mom buying a Sony PlayStation Vita for her son says she was sold a demo model.

When neither the store nor manufacturer would make it right, it was time to call Kurtis.

She paid full price but ended up with a demo model.

You’d think the store where she bought it or Sony would take care of the problem!

But nope.

KC Faddis’ 9th birthday cake… half eaten.

And his gift from mom Nicole, a PlayStation Vita, just out of the box.

“Ii wanted to play it all day but it didn’t work,” said KC.

The USB cord that came with the gaming system wouldn’t fit.

And the slot where a game would normally go…

“There’s no place to put a game, it’s screwed shut,” said Nicole Miller, KC’s mom.

The Orangevale Wal-Mart where Nicole bought the game just two days earlier, told her she was sold a demo model but they sent her to Sony.

Sony told Nicole to go back to Wal-Mart.

Bounced between two large corporations, Nicole was out more than $355 total for the system, a starter kits and games.

“I just feel that it was very wrong for both companies to just turn their back on us like that,” said Nicole.

“They all out to be ashamed of themselves,” said Eric Ratinoff, Consumer Attorney, KCR Legal.

Ratinoff says Wal-Mart should honor its 15 day return policy on electronics, stated right here on its web site but ultimately, he thinks both companies failed here.

“They need to deal with them among themselves. They don’t need drag this poor mom and her 9 year old son into this,” said Ratinoff.

We contacted Wal-Mart. They told us the PlayStation Vita wasn’t a demo.

Why does it say “demo mode” when you power it up?

And say “not for sale” on the back?

Wal-Mart couldn’t explain that.

But in an email, tells us:

“This is not the experience we want our customers to have in our stores and apologize to Ms. Miller for her inconvenience. We have reiterated our return policy with associates to help ensure this does not happen again.”
-Kayla Whaling, Media Relations, Wal-Mart

After we got involved, Nicole exchanged the PlayStation for a new one and says her faith in Wal-Mart has been restored.

“I would probably still go back there and shop there,” said Nicole.

We also reached out to Sony which says this is a “very remote issue” and its customer service department should’ve been able to help Nicole.

To make it up, they sent KC several free games.

Sony Statement
After reviewing the contact we had with Ms. Miller, we’ve determined that while our agent attempted the quickest solution, it did not provide the level of service necessary to resolve the issue. SCEA takes pride in delivering the best consumer experience to owners of PlayStation products, and we have attempted to contact Ms. Miller to apologize for the oversight and to ensure that the issue has now been addressed to her satisfaction.
-Al de Leon, Sony Computer Entertainment America